SonicChicken blog

After nearly seven months of construction, we’re finally starting to paint! The garage, which required the least drywall compound, is ready for painting. Because this is all fresh drywall, we’re putting on two coats of primer–the first one basically seals the drywall, while the second coat actually primes the wall for the color coat. Even though it’s not quite a two-car garage, it’s going to take a fair bit of paint because we have 9′ high walls plus the ceiling. Barb picked up the primer(s) and the color paint this afternoon, and she has already started painting. I’ll be joining her as soon as I finish posting this, and Punk is coming over after work to lend her expertise as well.

We’ll get some more painting done over the weekend. According to our drywaller, the texture on the laundry/utility room and the new bathroom should be cured and ready for paint by Sunday morning, possibly even Saturday afternoon. He’d like us to paint those rooms so he can compare his texture to the 60 year-old texture on the plaster. I think we’re going to put more effort into the utility room, since we’d really like to get the washer and dryer back into operation! (Laundromats are definitely sucking!)

Insulation was installed on Wednesday. Wow, what a difference! It’s quiet, and the temperature in the house is much more stable. (Not so cold in the morning nor hot in the afternoon.) I thought they were only going to do the walls at this time, so I didn’t prep the ceiling and left some attic/ceiling wiring work undone. But when I got home that night, I found that all the “open” ceiling (i.e. bare joists without drywall) had batting insulation installed. Rats! That made it even more difficult for me to finish the wiring that night.

The drywall started going up yesterday morning. Artisan Drywall is our sub, and they’ve been outstanding! Ron (the owner) and one of his guys even came out and helped us finish clearing out much of the house in order to keep the project on schedule. Ron hired out a separate company to hang the drywall, and they made quite a bit of progress yesterday. They were back pretty early this morning, and they should be finished putting up our walls early this afternoon. (Ceilings were already finished yesterday.) Ron and his crew will be in next week to tape and texture the drywall.

I had to straighten up two studs in our one-and-only hallway, (one on each side of the hall), because they were bowed enough that the drywall would crack if they tried to attach to those walls. One side of the hallway is merely a partition wall, (not load-bearing), so I was able to correct that one pretty easily by making about 5 cuts with a circular saw to bowed-out side of the stud. (A picture or diagram would be very handy here…) This relaxed the stud enough that we were able to push it into alignment with its neighbors, and the drywall guys screwed a sheet of drywall to the back side of the stud to hold it in place. (Took maybe five minutes to fix.) Of course the other stud was on an exterior, load-bearing wall, so I had to plane down the high spot and put some drywall shims in a few places. I did manage to fix this wall, but it took the better part of an hour fiddling with the power planer, a 4′ straightedge, and many drywall shims. Added bonus: a huge mess of wood shavings from the planer stuck to the wall insulation and sprinkled all over the floor!

Our plumber came out yesterday afternoon to connect the gas line for the new furnace. He’s doing us a big favor to pull this off on short notice, so I stayed out there and helped him. I was amazed at how easy he made it look, but like any skilled trade I imagine it’s all about the know-how and proper tools.

I got power up to the FAU late last night, and the HVAC contractor was out this morning to fire up the furnace. We have heat! We’ll have to turn it off while the drywallers are sanding, but we’re pretty much climate-controlled at this point. After 2½ years without central heat, it’ll be a huge improvement!

On the “even more good news” front: I just spoke with our cabinet maker and let him know that the drywallers would probably be finished by next Friday, and I asked if he would be ready to install our cabinets on the following Monday. He responded, “Yeah, but would you guys be okay with me coming in on Saturday instead?” Heck, yes!

On the downside, Barb and I gave up on hosting Thanksgiving this year. There’s no way the floors will be finished in time, and we don’t really want our 10-month-old nephew crawling around on the unfinished floor. So once the addition is complete we’re going to host a post-Thanksgiving dinner–all the same food, and hopefully all the same people, that we would be having for the real turkey day.

One more minor problem: we lost our Internet connection again yesterday, but I’ll probably be able to get that working again over the weekend. And hopefully we’ll have more time for pictures (and blogging!) now that the bulk of the remodeling work is behind us.

Aside from a few minor glitches, it feels like we’ve finally crested the hill that is our addition/remodeling project. Looks like Barb and I will even have a chance to sit around and enjoy a glass of wine some time this weekend.

Normally I’m very supportive of the Sacramento County Building Department. Nearly everybody I’ve dealt with has been helpful, professional, and even pleasant. On top of that, the inspector who’s assigned to our job is outstanding. But he must be on vacation or something, because today I had my first less-than-positive interaction with somebody from the building department.

Enough about that. It doesn’t even warrant a post on its own, so here’s the important news. Our gable vents finally arrived, so we can finish the three “showpiece” gables! (The one over the entry and the two in the back yard.) We are going to finish prep work for lath this weekend so that the stucco crew can come in on Monday and get the house wrapped and lathed. They’ll be finished by Tuesday evening or Wednesday some time. While they’re doing that, I’ll be finishing the electrical rough-in. Once both the electrical and lath are done, we’ll call for our rough frame inspection. Insulation will go in the walls the day after frame inspection, (assuming I remember to call them back and confirm!) The day after that, drywall starts. Drywall delivery is scheduled for next Friday morning at 7:00, so the house and garage will need to be completely cleared out by then. If we’re super lucky the drywall will be up, taped and textured by the end of the following week (Nov 2).

Just to make sure this weekend is extra fun, we’re driving to Napa (1.5 hrs) tomorrow for Caitlin’s gymnastics meet (4.5 hrs), after which we will be going down to Oakland (1 hr) my cousin’s housewarming party (who cares how long, it’s a party!), then driving back to Sacramento (1.5 hrs, designated driver presumed). So enough blogging, I’ve got way too much to do!